Valkyrie
The Valkyrie SSTO-TAV-37 B-class shuttlecraft (shortened to 'Valkyrie' by humans, and referred to by the Na'vi as Shah-tell,) is a delta-wing transatmospheric vehicle primarily used to transport equipment, raw material such as Unobtanium, and personnel between the ISV Venture Star and Hell's Gate on the moon Pandora. Valkyries have an operational range of 2000 kilometers in the Pandoran atmosphere. The Valkyrie has a payload of up to 60 armed troops, 25 AMP suits, 25 tons of refined unobtanium and/or supplies.James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide, page 158 The two Valkyries carried by the ISV are used to transfer personnel and cargo between the orbiting ISV and the surface of Pandora. These vessels are left at Pandora, and the old Valkyrie craft are re-purposed to serve as automated gas harvesters, skimming through Polyphemus's upper atmosphere to obtain anti-hydrogen and deuterium for refueling the ISV. Each has VTOL capabilities by pivoting the engines for landing on the planet, and the Valkyrie's powerful fusion power plant provides enough energy to the engines for hours at a time, which allows the shuttle to function as a low speed aerial platform for exploration and survey roles. As seen in the picture (far right), a Valkyrie is landing at Hell's Gate. Atmospheric Descent and Ascent Valkyries enter the dense Pandoran atmosphere after decoupling from an ISV from a low delta-v orbit. As it hits the Pandoran atmosphere, the hypersonic reentry speed creates friction that, which a Valkyrie is protected from by carbon-fiber thermal tiles. As it decelerates in the upper atmosphere, it vectors towards its only landing site, Hell's Gate. At 10,000 feet of altitude, where the atmosphere is thick enough, the air-breathing turbojet engines are activated. They provide forward propulsion until the shuttle is on the final approach to Hell's Gate, which is when the mining pit is spotted. At that point the engines are transitioned to VTOL mode, which slows the shuttle down and allows for better maneuverability. As the shuttle approaches landing, it hovers on thrust from the four-poster lift engines, then settles slowly to the ground as thrust is throttled back. In order to reach, orbit, the shuttle rises in hover and the engines are vectored slightly aft to begin forward acceleration. The shuttle then transitions to wing-borne forward flight at 130 knots, with the engines now aligned longitudinally for forward thrust. It then accelerates to supersonic speed on the turbojet engines. As it approaches Mach 3, hypersonic inlets open and the Valkyrie goes into scramjet mode. It steadily accelerates at 3G's to Mach 7, and then transitions from turbojet to the fusion orbital engine for the final burn to orbit. A Valkyrie was fitted with machine-gun nests on the wings and cargo ramp, and was going to be used to deliver two Daisy Cutter explosive packages to the Tree of Souls. It was destroyed when Jake, in his Avatar form, threw grenades into the engine intake after the explosives had been armed, causing the Valkyrie to tip forward and the explosives packages to fall back inside the hold. The explosives then detonated while still inside the Valkyrie, causing the entire ship to disintegrate in a massive fireball. The second Valkyrie was seen being used to ferry the remaining base personnel of Hell's Gate back to orbit. Trivia *In the Vietnam war, giant improvised daisy cutter bombs were delivered by C-130 Hercules transports which were kicked out of the cargo ramp and descended by parachute to create instant landing zones ("LZ"). The resulting explosion left a distinctive crater in the shape of a daisy. The Hercules was used to "shuttle" supplies to forward bases such as Khe Sanh. Machine guns were sometimes mounted on the cargo ramps of HH-53 "Jolly Green Giant" helicopters in Vietnam and now CV-22s for self protection in the absence of dedicated gun turrets. *There are some similarities to the Valkyrie from Warhammer 40k. *The craft also bears similarities to the real world XB-70 Valkyrie, most notably the delta wing design. *Valkyrie is also the name of a Battlestar from the series Battlestar Galactica. *The Valkyrie bears a vauge resemblance to the Pelican dropship in the Halo games. Ironically, the Pelican's was inspired by the dropship in Aliens, one of James Cameron's other films. References de:Valkyrie nl:Valkyrie pl:Wahadłowiec Walkiria Category:Vehicles Category:Avatar Category:Weapons Category:RDA Category:Machines